According to a press release issued by the FICCI about its 12-point agenda, the industry body has suggested moratorium on additional expenses on doles; expediting implementation of GST; bringing down the key interest rates by 200 basis points.

FICCI urged that Land Bill should not be passed in its current form and fiscal stimulus be given for investments across sectors. The industry body demanded policy reforms to allow FDI in sectors like multi-brand retail, civil aviation etc. It also demanded deregulation of diesel prices.

To ensure the food security the industry chamber said that reforms should be made to increase productivity and to improve agriculture marketing.

FICCI also asked government to address the issue of repatriation of black money to immediately mitigate the BOP situation by entering into global revenue sharing agreements.

Meanwhile another industry body Assocham has strongly condemned a sense of negativity that has been doing rounds during past few weeks, conveying an impression as if nothing is going right for Indian economy at the moment. In a press release, it appealed to the India Inc. to shun negativity.

“There are no doubts that Indian economy has been facing sort of a bumpy ride over the past few months and even the government has not done enough to send a strong signal amid investors that problems facing the economy will be fixed. But creating a negative impression is grossly unfair to the inherent strength that our economy has shown in the past as it is not the first time that the growth has decelerated,” said Rajkumar Dhoot, Assocham President.

Assocham also appealed and urged the Reserve Bank of India not to be misled by the headline inflation, which is around seven per cent. It said that the core inflation is much lower, which clearly suggests that there is a lot more scope to cut interest rates and generate demand in the system.